Bilge keels. Hull sanding
Last steps before epoxy encapsulation: bilge keels, sanding, CB-opening trimming.
Bilge keels first. I made them from oak - they will take the beating when the boat will be beached or run on trailer so hardwood is in place.
Starting with a pattern, to get hull’s shape.
My favorite way of patterning such shapes is CADing. Cardboard Aided Design, that is.
Shape transferred to oak. I ripped a bit wider oak planks, to have margins when shaping the keels.
Rough cutting with router, final carving with spoke shave.
Fitting onto hull and final corrections.
Now - this is a mistake from my side. It would have been much easier if I fitted bilge keels while planking. Doing that at fourth strake would allow me easy clamping and drilling holes for mounting screws. Instead, when doing it on the finished hull, I had to hold them in place with tape and lead pigs while crawling under the boat to mark drilling positions.
But it worked anyway. Each bilge keel, apart from being glued, is held in place with two 8mm thick bronze screws.
It ain’t go nowhere!
Dry fitting before taping everything around for epoxy.
For gluing oak I use WEST G-Flex (or Flex, for short). It is of honey consistency, already thickened. Good stuff.
Oak got cleaned with acetone and gluing surfaces got scrubbing with rough sandpaper, to get even stronger bond.
I left the boat to cure for 24 hours, keeping the shed at 25 degrees this whole time. Luckily we have warm week, with night temperatures around 6 degrees.
Next day Louve was ready for next steps.
Sanding!
I evacuated epoxy and kerosene stove from the shed - dust will be everywhere.
Breathing and hearing protection and off I went with orbital sander. Transom sanded with 80 grit - it will be epoxied, too.
Rest of the hull was sanded by hand. I rounded planks’ edges so that epoxy and paint will hold better.
Next thing was CB opening. John Hartmann pointed out that garboard edges inside the CB opening can be a source of trouble due to chafe. He pulled them back and fiberglassed edges before gluing the false keel.
Following his advice I routed these edges so that they are behind timber edges - false keel and keel. Being out of harms way they should not be hit by moving/vibrating centerboard so simple encapsulation with epoxy should keep them protected.
Being certain that epoxy is cured I started shaping bilge keels. According to plans they should have 25mm height along the whole length. When I asked Francois Vivier about them he replied that, if I have enough timber, it would be even better if they have 30mm in the center part and go down to 15mm at ends.
Well, I had even more thickness at hand so I left 34mm in the center part and slimmed them down at both ends. Their role is to support the boat when not in water. I suspect that they, like bilge keels on ships or some dinghies, are also helpful in stopping the boat from rolling so having some more millimeters of height will do good.
Rough shaping with scrub plane.
Streamlining with no.5 and then sanded till smooth.
The whole shed and the boat got proper vacuuming before epoxy painting tomorrow.
If the weather permits.